The UN has warned that with so many people fleeing en masse — almost half the Gaza population — would be calamitous
Jerusalem: Palestinians began a mass exodus from northern Gaza Friday, Oct 13 after Israel’s military told some 1 million people to move towards the southern part of the besieged territory, an unprecedented order ahead of an expected ground invasion against the ruling Hamas militant group, a reuters report in The Tribune, Chandigarh, says.
The UN warned that so many people fleeing en masse — almost half the Gaza population — would be calamitous.
Hamas, which staged a shocking and brutal attack on Israel nearly a week ago and has fired thousands of rockets since, dismissed the evacuation order as a ploy and called on people to stay in their homes.
The evacuation order, which applies to Gaza City, home to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, sparked widespread panic among civilians and aid workers already running from Israeli airstrikes and contending with a total siege of Gaza.
Israel has cut off all food, water and supplies and caused a territory-wide blackout.
The war has already claimed over 3,000 lives on both sides and sent tensions soaring across the region.
Israel has traded fire in recent days with Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group, sparking fears of an ever wider conflict, though that frontier is currently calm.
Gaza pounded relentlessly
Weekly Muslim prayers brought protests across the Middle East, and tensions ran high in Jerusalem’s Old City.
The Islamic endowment that manages a flashpoint holy site in the city, the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, said Israeli authorities barred all Palestinian men under the age of 50 from entering.
Israel has bombarded Gaza round-the-clock since Hamas’ attack, in which its fighters massacred hundreds in southern Israel and snatched some 150 people as hostages.
Hamas said Israel’s airstrikes killed 13 of the hostages in the past day. It said the dead included foreigners but did not give their nationalities.
Israel said it needed to target Hamas’ military infrastructure, much of which is buried deep underground. Another spokesperson, Jonathan Conricus, said the military would take “extensive efforts to avoid harming civilians” and that residents would be allowed to return when the war is over.
Hamas militants operate in civilian areas, where Israel has long accused them of using Palestinians as human shields.
“The camouflage of the terrorists is the civil population,” Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said at a news conference with US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin. “Therefore, we need to separate them. So those who want to save their life, please go south.” But UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said it would be impossible to stage such an evacuation without “devastating humanitarian consequences.”
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